Late last month, longtime E! News host Catt Sadlerleft the network because of what she described as an enormous pay gap between herself and her male counterpart, Jason Kennedy. And on Tuesday, E! chief Frances Berwick confirmed that there is indeed a difference between what Sadler and Kennedy were making at the network, but, she claimed, the gap was for a good reason.

“Catt Sadler and Jason Kennedy had different roles and therefore different salaries,” Berwick told press during a Television Critics Association panel. “Catt was focused on daytime. Jason Kennedy is on primetime evening news, plus red carpet. Our employees’ salaries are based on their roles and their expertise, regardless of gender. We wish Catt well, but I hope that sets the record straight on that.”

In a lengthy post on her Web site posted last month, Sadler explained that she was leaving E! after an executive at the network alerted her of the pay disparity. When she began contract negotiations last year, Sadler said she learned that the gap was more staggering than she thought: “[H]e was making close to double my salary for the past several years.”

She continued, “How can I operate with integrity and stay on at E if they’re not willing to pay me the same as him?
Or at least come close? How can I accept an offer that shows they do not value my contributions and paralleled dedication all these years?”

On Sunday, Debra Messing brought attention back to Sadler’s claim on the Golden Globes red carpet. While speaking to E! correspondent Giuliana Rancic, Messing pivoted the conversation from her support of Time’s Up to Sadler’s alleged situation. “I was so shocked to hear that E! doesn’t believe in paying their female co-hosts the same as their male co-hosts,” Messing told Rancic. “I miss Catt Sadler. And so we stand with her.”

Berwick was not the only person to be asked about Sadler’s claim during Tuesday’s Television Critics Association panels. Entertainment Weeklyreports that Rose McGowan, the outspoken actress and activist, was asked about Sadler while promoting her upcoming documentary series, Citizen Rose, which will air on the same network.

“[Sadler’s departure] came about after I had already done my deal,” McGowan said, speaking before Berwick’s panel. “Maybe things will change. Probably if you’re sitting next to a woman and you work the same job as her and you [asked], ‘What do you get paid?’ I almost guarantee you’re being paid more. There is a difference, and that is systemic. You can call it against E!, you can call it out against every single job there is, because it’s not illegal to discriminate that way.”